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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24517300">A Witch's Curse</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poketrash48/pseuds/Poketrash48'>Poketrash48</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Fantasy, Hybrid - Freeform, Serpent, original creature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 08:01:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,003</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24517300</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poketrash48/pseuds/Poketrash48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>How a simple curse can change a young hybrid's life.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Witch's Curse</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is my first work and I'm still learning how to use Ao3 so I'm sorry if the formatting looks a bit off, I copied and pasted this from Google Docs so that I can save my work.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The hybrid’s wrists were burning, the sensation slowly spreading to his hands, immobilizing them. He still had not tried to open his eye in which a sharp, throbbing pain pulsed through. He knew a curse from a well trained moon witch was strong, but he didn’t know how much pain a witch with such beautiful and majestic magic could deal.<br/>
He’d been stumbling around the forest for almost 12 hours now, using the slowly deteriorating mobility in his hands to make a shelter. It was sloppily made compared to what his hands were once able to create; making shelters was one of the only things he was allowed to practice in town. He tried to use his tail to help build, the tail that got him into this mess, but lack of training and use made his motions rough and unsteady, causing him to start over multiple times.<br/>
</p><p>When night stole his heat, he knew he had to find a way to conserve the limited amount of body heat he produced thanks to his serpent blood. Though the night stole his heat, it gifted him energy and much better sight thanks to his shadow hopper blood. His functioning eye was bright yellow, giving off a soft yet intense glow, a glow that terrified his town more than his tail and fangs did.<br/>
He worked through the night, gathering bark, dead grass, and dried leaves to make tinder and kindling for a fire. He made a stone circle, well, more of a stone oval due to his lack of motor control with his tail, and did his best to start a fire with his pin-prickling hands. He tried, striking the rocks above the tinder over, and over, and over again, desperate to see a single spark. He’s made countless fires with rocks before, some in only a matter of seconds, but the years of training he’s had, the tips and tricks he heard from his elders, had all gone to waste as he cried over his poor excuse of a fire. He tucked his tail under his cloak, brought his knees to his chest, and rested his head on his knees, tears still streaming down his face.<br/>
He sat like that for hours under the moonlight, not wanting to move and risk losing the minimal amount of heat his body produced. He wanted the sun to rise, to warm him and save him much needed energy, yet he dreaded to see the sun as he had nowhere to hide from the burning light it brought with it, light that his body craved yet rejected as well.</p><p>He didn’t remember falling asleep in front of his poorly made fire pit, but when he lifted his head from its throne of tears, the sunlight greeted him with what felt like a knife stabbing through his curse stricken eye. He let out a small whimper before dropping his head back onto the tear stained spot on his knees. He knew he had to find shade to hide his light sensitive body under, but the warmth the sun gave felt like a warm hug he didn’t want to break away from. He sat in the light for another hour before his head began to throb due to too much light exposure. He let out a hiss that turned into a whimper, he hated his body for craving the one thing that broke it down faster than a witch’s curse ever could.<br/>
</p><p>He moved at a pace a snail could beat; moving his legs first so they were crossed in front of him, moving his tail out behind him to help him balance, and finally standing up. He kept his head down and his eyes closed, wanting nothing more to crawl into his sloppy little shelter and sleep until night fell again. He didn’t need to worry about food for another day or so thanks to his serpent blood, and he knew where a freshwater creek was as he would need to gather water for his family before he was kicked out of town, so resting in the shade was his top priority.<br/>
</p><p>He stumbled over to his shelter and crashed down onto his knees before falling onto his side under the branches and leaves that were his roof. Carefully, he used his feet to kick himself deeper inside his shelter so the rest of his body would be shielded from the harsh yet warm sunlight. He laid under his leafy roof, hands and eye still throbbing with a stabbing pain he knew wouldn’t disappear on its own. He listened to the sounds of the forest, chirps, footsteps, and water running down into the creak. It was peaceful, though his town was in the middle of a forest, he never got to enjoy the sounds nature produced thanks to the town calling him by his truly unfitting name; Teras.<br/>
Teras, by his understanding, meant ‘monster’ in another language. He knew what monsters were, beasts who would hurt and hunt others, but he would never use his fangs to bite those around him, he would never use his tail to whip or strangle anyone, and he would never hide in the shadows to scare someone! He knew the other meaning behind his name, a beast that would horrify others. His fangs would make people shiver, his scaly tail would make people’s head’s turn, and his eyes, his glowing yellow eyes, were things people saw in nightmares. He never wanted to be a hybrid, a monster in his town’s eyes, his siblings were born normal, so why wasn’t he, why wasn’t the youngest born as either a serpent or a shadow hopper like his parents, why did the town have to name him after a creature that scares and hurts others?<br/>
</p><p>His thoughts ran rampant as he began to drift to a restless sleep, still not understanding why he was kicked from his home and cursed by the self proclaimed mayor of the town. Could a child truly be that scary?</p>
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